Distributed Wireless Neural Recording System for Multi-Region Brain Activity Monitoring

Distributed neural interfaces for multi-region implantation require both scalable interconnects and robust telemetry, yet conventional centralized or fully distributed architectures often trade-off wiring complexity, resource reuse, and transmission stability. This work presents a distributed wireless neural recording system based on a parallel-link architecture and a custom 12-channel neural recording Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). Each remote module is connected to a central hub through an independent four-wire link (VDD/GND/LVDS±). The ASIC integrates modular digital pixels (MDPs), an on-chip oscillator, a Manchester encoding, and a Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) output to reduce interconnect count while maintaining reliable serial transmission. Fabricated in SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS, the chip occupies 4.84 mm × 0.36 mm and consumes 10.13 mW in total, with 48.5 μW/channel consumed by the recording channels excluding the LVDS driver. It achieves 5.6 μVrms input-referred noise and a measured per-channel sampling rate of 28.93 kSps. A compact 20 mm² recording module and an FPGA-based central hub with real-time decoding and compression were implemented for validation. In vivo mouse experiments demonstrate clear action-potential recordings across 12 channels, confirming the feasibility of stable and scalable multi-region neural signal acquisition.